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Danish idioms with the devil

The Danish language uses ‘the devil’ in really creative ways. Here, we have collected some of the funniest ones.

Danish expressions and idioms with the devil

The Danish language is quite rich in expressions, sayings and swearwords that involve one way or another 'the devil'. Here, we have collected some of the funniest ones.

Felicia Gheorghe

Copenhagen Language Center

Devil related Danish idioms

Before the devil puts shoes on

The Danish language is quite rich in expressions, sayings and swear words that involve the Bible’s bad boy in one way or another.

Why? You may ask. Well … that's a very good question. Most languages have at least a few idioms and expressions with 'the devil'. He/She is after all the one leading us into temptation and responsible for all the nasty stuff. Right?

But the Danes have taken expressions with 'Mr. Beelzebub' to the next level and use him for various Danish sayings in really creative ways. I sometimes doubt that we are still talking about the same 'Prince of Darkness' we all know and fear.

Illustration by Chiara Nicola

The devil is loose on Salmon Street

Here we have collected some of the funniest Danish idioms with 'the devil'. Remember that the words between the brackets are a purely word by word translations!

Comments

Join the discussion

Jens Nobel

4 apr. 2017
21:44

Good article, but where did the author learn English? I’m not a language graduee on uni level or anything, but even I know that it is not translated “It has the Devil created.” You either say “the devil created it.” or “it was created by the Devil.”
I know you simply transcribe it word for word, but that translation creates a sentence which is saying something completely different. A little self criticism in translation might have come in handy before releasing this article.

Thank you for your comment and your suggestions. Unfortunately, we cannot use the provided suggestions as they are not directly translated. We use direct translations in order to teach our students Danish vocabulary as well as Danish sentence structure. A correct English sentence is always preferable but not our goal 🙂